Insta-Collab Mastery
Guide to Instagram Collaborations
Discover the ultimate guide to Instagram collaborations like never before!
This essential guide will provide you with the keys to unlock the potential of digital partnerships, taking your Instagram presence to the next level.
Welcome to the world of Instagram collaborations, where your creative potential meets endless opportunities. In this article, you’ll explore the landscape of digital partnerships, uncovering advanced strategies, insider tips, and foolproof tricks for creating winning synergies with other creators. Get ready to dive into your comprehensive guide to Instagram collaborations, because it’s time to let your digital star shine!
Monetizing with Instagram: The Truth About Collaborations and Affiliations
In this Guide to Instagram Collaborations, I’ll examine collaborations from these perspectives: how to find them, how to do them, and affiliations. We’ll also analyze two very interesting case studies. You’ll discover how to search for collaborations, what criteria to consider before accepting them, and how to approach companies personally. We’ll delve into the world of affiliations, a less invasive way of monetizing on Instagram, which must absolutely be mentioned in a Guide to Instagram Collaborations.
First of all, I must clarify that I have done many collaborations and will likely continue to do so (albeit selectively), but this will only happen while traveling. I don’t know if you were already with me during my “fight against discount codes,” but let’s just say my relationship with collaborations is very conflicted. Even when my clients encounter them, I always try to dissuade them from pursuing them. Let’s move on and discover everything there is to know in our Guide to Instagram Collaborations.
Practical Tips for Instagram Collaborations
In the leisurely world of social media, collaborations often appear as advertising interruptions, which is not what I recommend to those who follow my courses and coaching. On the other hand, more and more content creators claim they need to recoup the time spent creating content, and collaborations are the right tool to do so. That’s why a Guide to Instagram Collaborations becomes essential and indispensable.
Conscious Choices in Instagram Collaborations
Personally, I believe it’s only partially right and that there are right and wrong ways to go about it. For example, my main profile started as a travel account, and the only collaborations I consider are from this sector. The reason is very simple. When you decide to promote a product, a facility, or a company on Instagram, you put your face on it. For me, it’s essential to promote only brands I know, have tried, and are related to the world I am an expert in: long-term travel.
Guide to Instagram Collaborations
But let’s get specific. There are two ways to collaborate depending on the number of followers and engagement your profile has: being contacted by companies or contacting companies yourself. If you have a valuable and optimized profile, many companies will seek you out for collaborations because indirect advertising on Instagram is standard practice in any respectable business plan. Be careful though, because often when a company seeks you out, they will propose a product exchange collaboration, sending you the product or hosting you at their locations in exchange for visibility.
In these cases, you need to carefully evaluate the value of the service you will provide, the “cost” of your time, and the cost of the offered stay. Often, with a quick calculation, you will realize that the value of what you provide is much greater than what you receive.
The Infinite World of Instagram Affiliations
Another way to monetize your Instagram profile is through affiliations. I find this type of collaboration much less invasive and annoying, but obviously, you shouldn’t overdo it here either. Don’t get carried away. Always remember you’re not a Hollywood VIP, and promoting any gadget you find on Amazon for a commission is certainly not the right technique. Create different affiliate accounts; the most famous are Amazon, Booking, Skyscanner, Siteground, Coinbase, and Clickbank. Don’t insert affiliate links every day, not even every week, and always remember that any item or service you promote should align with your values. (For example, even though I have a cryptocurrency account, I don’t promote it on Miniwanderlustteam because it’s not a topic I discuss on that profile). I go crazy when I see entire highlighted story folders with affiliate links to all sorts of household items. I believe a good Guide to Instagram Collaborations should open your eyes to this aspect.
Case Studies: When Instagram Collaborations Went Wrong
In any respectable Guide to Instagram Collaborations, it’s essential to analyze the major flops in collaboration history.
Before any collaboration, ask yourself these questions:
- Do you really know what you’re going to promote?
- Are you an expert in this sector?
- Is it interesting and valuable to your community?
- Would you use it if you had to pay for it?
- Do you know its flaws?
- Do you share the company’s principles?
Now, I want to prove what I’m trying to explain with concrete examples of campaigns that have risked damaging the influencers involved (in my opinion, this isn’t a risk but a reality).
The first is the famous clothing brand Shein, now notoriously known for its behind-the-scenes operations where workers’ rights are non-existent, and there are no sustainability values.
When Shein landed on social media, many women fell into the trap of easy money, accepting the collaboration and starting to sponsor a fast fashion giant far from any human values. When Shein’s dark side was revealed, these influencers lost credibility.
Do you know why?
Because no important and valid brand will seek those influencers to promote their products anymore.
Many companies do not accept their products being associated with Shein products.
Another highly relevant case is the newly established airline, Wizzair.
This summer, the pink airline launched a major advertising campaign, inviting many travel influencers for a week in Saudi Arabia in exchange for social media visibility. Content creators went wild over the free vacation, and many didn’t bother to check the new airline’s reliability.
As it turned out, Wizzair canceled many flights during the summer, and customer service practically vanished, leaving travelers stranded at airports worldwide.
Now, I ask you: Would you trust a hotel promoted by the same influencers who traveled for free on Wizzair?
I personally wouldn’t.
And like me, many others think the same… especially industry professionals.
See where I’m getting at?
I work in this field and manage advertising campaigns for various clients. Part of my job is to find testimonials for the companies I work for to promote their services. So, I, like many others in my position, would never choose one of those content creators.
This is another case where a collaboration turned out to be more harmful than beneficial.
The Ferragni Balocco case is also very current, for which I refer you instead to the complete article where I have included an in-depth analysis from a communication point of view of the entire incident: Ferragni Balocco case, the communication strategy.
Digital Tools for Instagram Collaborations
Let’s tackle the practical side of Instagram collaborations, armed with digital tools that will make your process more efficient and engaging. To start, you can’t underestimate the power of Asana or Trello for project management. These tools allow you to plan collaborations, track content, and set clear deadlines, ensuring smooth communication with your digital partners. For finding potential collaborators, Influence Grid and NotJustAnalytics are your ideal allies. Influence Grid simplifies discovering influencers and creatives, while NotJustAnalytics deeply analyzes the Instagram profile data of potential collaborators. This allows you to evaluate engagement, audience, and account authenticity, ensuring collaborations with genuine partners suitable for your audience.
Creating Engaging Content for Instagram Collaborations
Finally, creating engaging content is the foundation of any successful collaboration. To make your images and videos irresistible, use Canva. This intuitive graphic design tool lets you create visually captivating content without being a graphic design expert. With this arsenal of tools, you’re ready to navigate the waves of Instagram collaborations with confidence and unique style.
How Many Collaborations to Do?
There’s no right answer, just as there’s no wrong answer. There are times of the year when collaborations are more frequent (such as the holiday season) because people are more psychologically inclined to buy. However, this can also be a double-edged sword as the number of competing content will be much higher.
In marketing, we talk about a “request bank.” When we create an editorial plan, we like to see the relationship with your audience as the relationship between a bank and a customer, where the bank is the audience.
The “game” is simple to explain: consider each piece of content as a coin. When it’s informative content, you’re giving credit to the bank. When the content is a collaboration (or any request for your audience to take action, such as clicking on an external link), it’s a debt. In this case, you’re asking something from your audience (the bank). So, in this game, remember that the bank always wins and must always have more coins than you.
It’s an awful metaphor, but nothing explains better the relationship between standard content and commercial content.
Don’t think about creating a balance; instead, always keep the scales tipped in favor of the bank, providing your audience with more informative or entertaining content (or similar to why they chose to follow you) compared to advertising content.
Basically, try to alternate commercial content with at least five pieces of content that characterize you.
Moral Responsibilities in Instagram Collaborations
Now you have the tools and knowledge to transform Instagram collaborations from simple digital connections to true growth opportunities. Remember, the key to success lies in building authentic relationships, limitless creativity, and a strategic approach.
Make the most of every collaboration, learn from experiences, and keep evolving your unique style in the vast Instagram landscape. Let every post be a step forward towards your digital triumph!
Don’t risk losing people interested in your content for a free vacation: in the long run, it’s a practice that doesn’t pay off.
As always, I’ll read your comments.
Digitally Yours
☀️ Sara ☀️
